Sunday, September 18, 2016

Elephant Diary: Reports from the Field

Elephant Diary: Reports from the Field

Excerpts from the monthly field reports of SLWCS research staff

Chandima FernandoEcologist and GIS SpecialistSeptember 2016

We have named this particular elephant “Hasthi” which in the Sinhala language means majestic elephant. This adult male is one of our resident bulls in Wasgamuwa. He is currently in musth but seems very calm. He is one of the biggest elephants at our field site so when he approaches females to inspect them for estrus other smaller and/or younger bulls move away from the females very quickly. He is in perfect shape (has good body condition). Compared to other bulls of similar age, he does not have many lumps from old shotgun wounds, apart from a burn mark which could be from an old wound on his left front leg.

Hasthi is one of the biggest dominant bulls in the study area

Ayodhya AmarajeewaResearch and Volunteer CoordinatorJuly/August 2016

During the months of July and August SLWCS hosted twenty volunteers who engaged in conservation based research efforts of the organization. The volunteers were split into two groups and each team was assigned a conservation research or project activity on a rotational basis. While one group worked on the beehive project the other team worked to collect field data on elephants, carnivores and human-elephant conflicts.

In the beehive project many damaged fences were mended by the volunteers’ collective effort. Some helped to repair and build new roofs for the beehive boxes using straw and wood while another team helped to erect wooden posts to build wire fences to hang the beehive boxes around villagers’ home gardens. During mid-August two interns joined the beehive project to work with the current PhD student, Kylie who is leading the project.

Some of the 20 volunteers who helped us with our conservation research

A survey was carried out on several villages where Project Orange Elephant (POE) programs were implemented. We analysed data from three villages and covered 10 houses each assessing 10 – 20 orange plants from each village. The survey included information on current success rate of the project, suggestions for further improvements, etc.

We conducted 17 HEC surveys in Kubukoya, Palupitiya-Hathare Ela, and in the Godaulpotha villages. Depending on the outcome of the surveys we will decide which villages we can provide with orange plants in the next POE phase. We will be continuing these assessments through September.

In mid-July we were joined by Lacy Wittman, a volunteer photo/videographer from the USA who came to cover all the project activities of SLWCS.

Grafted orange plants that will be distributed to farmers under POE

Lacy Wittman

Chandima FernandoEcologist and GIS Specialist

Human Elephant Conflict (HEC) Surveys

18 human-elephant conflict (HEC) surveys were conducted in the two villages of Kubukoya and Thoppalapitiya that borders the Wasgamuwa National Park. . The HEC levels were higher than we expected in these two border villages.

Based on our survey these two villages seem ideal to establish Project Orange Elephant (POE) programs. Several farmers were very keen to participate in the POE program. Ayodhya plans to hold discussions with farmers from these two villages to select an initial batch of farmers to participate in POE. In the meantime I will create a map of the area using GIS.

Lacy recording Chandima at a home that was raided by an elephant

A wall damaged the elephant

Elephant Trail Mapping

The forest south of the Weheragala Tank was selected to survey for elephant trails to map them. We were able to conduct these walking surveys only on two days due to the increased elephant activities outside the Wasgamuwa National Park. Over one hundred elephants are distributed over this area presently making it too risky to conduct walking surveys. During these surveys it became quite apparent that we needed to increase our knowledge to identify woody plants. In this regard a good reference collection of plant field guides is an essential resource for this activity. We are also working on establishing a plant reference collection to help in this effort.

Elephant observations at Weheragala Tank (Lake)

Presently over one hundred elephants can be observed on some days in various social groups at the Weheragala Tank. For the elephant observations the following activities were conducted.* Data was collected on group composition.* A new behavioural study was initiated with the aim of collecting information for an elephant ethogram.* Data was also collected to study their time budgets on different behaviours.

We also began to conduct night observations using night vision scopes and as a trial several pictures and videos were recorded using the night visions. The quality of the videos seems good and can be used for night studies of elephants.During one night disturbance were caused by some drunks. Ironically nearly 60 percent of the people killed in Sri Lanka annually by elephants happen to be intoxicated men. Men imbibed with alcohol gets a false sense of bravado to challenge elephants. Unfortunately it is a fight they can never win.

We need more binoculars, night visions and spotting scopes for this project especially if we are to increase afternoon and night observations during the dry season when elephants often hang out on the littoral plains of the Weheragala Tank.

Elephant observations at the WG Tank

Conducting elephant observations

A large gathering of elephants at the WG Tank

Identifying elephants

Night observation of elephants

Sand Traps

Sixteen sand traps are functioning in total in three different forests where remote cameras have been setup.

Elephants have used some of our sand traps as sand bathing place, as a result no leopard pug marks or spoor of other animals was recorded from those sand traps. We need better sand leveling tools to make smooth sand traps.

Volunteers making a sand trap

Making sand traps

The International Conference on Asian Elephants in Nature & Culture

The International Conference on Asian Elephants in Nature & Culture was organized by the Research Centre, Faculty of Social Sciences of the Kelaniya University of Sri LankaOur paper on Project Orange Elephant was selected for a presentation at this conference. Chinthaka and I made the presentation on our paper titled: Project Orange Elephant: Promoting Sustainable Land Use Practices to Alleviate Rural Poverty and Mitigate Human Elephant Conflicts.__

Kylie Butler also made a presentation on the Beehive Project at the conference.

Both presentations were very well received and generated a lot of interest from the local as well as the foreign participants who were attending the conference. There were several requests from conference participants asking the SLWCS to offer visits for them to participate as well study these projects.

At the conference venue: Lacy, Kylie, Chandima and Chinthaka

Giving the presentation on POE

Butterfly Garden

For a long time it has been the intention to establish a butterfly conservation project. Finally the flower beds to plant butterfly feeder plants have been prepared to establish the Butterfly Garden. Since it is the dry season no plants can be planted due to water shortage. With the beginning of the rainy season a comprehensive survey will be conducted to identify food plants that butterflies feed on. These plants will be propagated and planted in the Butterfly Garden.

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

It’s September which means the annual closure of YalaNational Park due to the prevailing drought and maintenance. This year they
will reopen on the 15th October.

My colleague Nadun and I were planning on visiting Yala just
before the closure however the trip never materialized. So 2nd week of
September with the long weekend in the horizon we decided to head down to Yala
and visit nearby wetlands and an alternative national park.

We left Colombo early around 8.30am and reached Yala within
5 hours (Thankfully for the southern expressway). Including the stop for lunch
it took us roughly 6 hours.

Our first stop was for lunch at Tangalle. It was a basic
restaurant for rice & curry and priced very reasonably. The cost per person
for rice & curry with fish worked out to Rupees 400 and the portions were
fairly large. The taste was very good as well...

After lunch we proceeded to Yala. We chose Jetwing Yala as
our accommodation for the 2 nights.

We had
the chance to drive by Tissa wetlands. Tissamaharama consist of a series of
wetlands, which are excellent for birding. Some of the highlights were
brown-headed barbet, Ceylon green pigeon, Grey Heron & White throated
kingfisher.

Tissa

We had a warm welcome at Jetwing Yala and were surprised to
see that the hotel was running on full occupancy even with Yala being closed.

Jetwing Yala

We had an early night that day as we were going to have an
early start in the morning.

We woke up at 4.30am next morning and it was very nice to
sit on our balcony and enjoy our tea. We got our breakfast packets and left the
hotel at 5am in our safari jeep to Lunugamvehera National Park. The journey to
the entrance was a bit far and finally by 6am we reached the gates.

Asian Elephant we saw during drive to Lunugamvehera

There were only 5 - 6 other jeeps at the gate purchasing
tickets for entry. This was the first time we visited Lunugamvehera and we were
very excited with the prospect of seeing any leopards as I’ve heard from some
guides that leopard sightings are fairly good here as well. With the lesser
crowds than Yala it was a more relaxed safari.

We were very close to seeing 2 leopard cubs as we were
parked near this waterhole that leopards generally visit frequently to quench
their thirst. We saw the cubs tails however there were few jeeps around and
they didn’t hang around much. At the same waterhole we saw 2 rather large sloth
bears. We were unlucky as we couldn’t capture any photographs though. The
animals at Lunugamvehera are still not used to the sounds of jeeps around and
get startled very easily which is what happened as the jeep next to ours moved
so they could get a better view resulted in the animals going away.

We only had half day safari which was sufficient as it’s a
smaller park than Yala.

After returning back to the hotel we had one of the best
buffet lunches and that evening enjoyed a dip in the swimming pool.

On our return back to Colombo we visited Ridiyagama safari
park at Hambantota. This is an open air zoo that opened up few months ago. The
tour takes you in an air-conditioned guided coach through the park. As its
still new there are certain sections that are yet to open.